When He Made Me Fall in Love
by MaceyGoode000
Summary: Rachel remembers the moments she and Joe have shared together and reflects on when exactly "they" happened. One-shot.


I love Joe and Rachel together, they are so perfect. However, there aren't very many stories that pair them together. This is just a one-shot where Rachel remembers the different moments she has shared with Joe. This is one of my first stories so I'd appriciate it if you'd review to tell me how it is. Any sugestions or comments would be welcomed.

All rights are Ally Carters!

**When He Made Me Fall in Love**

**Rachel's POV **

I don't know what's happening to me. No, I take that back, I do know. I just don't know if I like it. See, falling in love is a complicated thing, especially if you are falling in love with your late husband's best friend. I'm not sure exactly when I realized it, maybe it was that night when he took me dancing. It was the first time I've really felt, free, in a long time. You know what I mean? It was the first time I stopped worrying and allowed myself to let go, since well, Mathew.

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I can remember that night just as clearly as if it were yesterday, although being a spy I can say that about most nights. Closing my eyes I feel strong arms reach for me in the library after Cam left, no doubt to go out with that boy of hers again. I hear a deep voice whisper my name just as his hands make contact with my waist. He brings in me to his steel chest, and I let my head rest there between two broad shoulders. He rests his chin softly on my head, and continues whispering,

"I remember Rach…even if she's forgotten, I'll always remember," and I could of sworn that Joe Solomon's voice cracked. There was silence other than the warm, crackling fire that was slowly burning behind us. In that moment I wanted to stay in his arms forever. I wanted to sink down on the one of soft couches next to the fireplace and cry my eyes out. But I am a spy, and spies don't cry over the past.

"You have to forgive yourself, Joe. He knew it would happen, that's who he was. Matt knew it was a suicide mission. He knew he probably wouldn't ever come home." My breath hitches, even now those words hurt. Matt knew he was leaving me. He knew he was leaving Cammie. He knew, and he did it anyway. I would have done the same thing of course, I still would in a heartbeat, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

"But it should have been me! If I'd of had any since at all I'd have stopped him!" Joe's breath for once is unsteady, for once even he is vulnerable. A tear threatens to spill from his eye, but like I said spies don't cry over the past, not even if it was their best friend.

"Shhhhh," I whisper. "Dwelling on what we've done, on every mistake we've made in this cruel life, won't bring us closure," I closed my eyes, "Matt wouldn't want us to cry for him. Matt wouldn't cry."

We stayed there in the library for a long time, just thinking, remembering. But when the sound of a hundred of girls leaving dinner filled the hall, Joe pushed the book revealing the same passage Cammie had not so long ago been trying to sneak through. We walked in silence through the darkness until we reached the gazebo in Roseville. He pulled a flyer from the wooden frame advertising an annual dance and a smile grew on his lips,

"Rachel, would you like to go dancing?"

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That may have been the beginning of these feelings I am so desperately fighting, but it certainly wasn't the end. The next summer I sent Cammie to stay with Matt's parents. After a significant amount of sweet talking with the director of the CIA, I managed to get Cammie off with just a debriefing. But that summer I had more important things on my mind, like Joe. Or more specifically, Joe's suggestion to bring Blackthorne to Gallagher. I know what you're thinking, bring fifteen future male assassins in to a school full of beautiful, might I add deadly, females! But then again, these young men could most defiantly teach our girls something or another not only about the world they are training for, but the male sex itself. On the whole, I figured the staff could control fifteen armatures who just happen to worship Joseph Solomon (who as of now is on my side). So, I spent the summer locked in my office with afore mentioned man. Who may I say looks especially sexy when he is sleeping on the couch next to your desk. With his shirt off.

The mansion is a lot different during the summer. I mean, take away squealing girls, running feet, and listening ears, and you have a beautiful, romantic building. It is a perfect place to wander around and think about things. Often that summer I found myself staring at the glimmering sword in the Hall of History, thinking of everything it had seen and done. I would wander for hours, letting my fingers trail along the cool stone walls and pausing to stare out ancient stained glass windows. There is a certain mesmerizing effect about the window that overlooks the lake. It seems to glimmer with an almost celestial light that moves with the water below it. That is why I would end up sitting on the lake shore trying to fathom why such beauty made me think of Joe Solomon.

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The moment I told Cammie that she could go stay with Macey at the Boston political convention, something in the back of my mind was worried. I soon found out why. When I found Cam and Macey, both passed out in a basement laundry room, I almost lost it. I froze in that doorway for a split second before I realized that both girls were still breathing, albeit shallowly. I remembered the feeling I had when I was told that Matt wasn't coming home, and I knew all too well how close I was to hearing that same news about my little girl. Joe ran into the room not ten second after me, but he did not hesitate. He scooped both girls up into his arms with ease and turned to me for directions that I was incapable of giving. Sensing this he nodded and walked out the door giving the Secret Service officers a look that made the protectors of the president himself back down.

He set them in the helicopter so gently you would have thought he was handling the Queen's best china. I could see the way he loved those girls, especially Cam. And in that instant, I realized I has seen that look on his face once before, when he looked at me.

In Joe's cabin, everything seems to stop, it's as if time itself stands still. I remember those 24 hours that Cam was out so feverishly clear. I still see Joe expertly set Macey's shattered arm in a splint, and feel my body shake as he wrapped Cammie's head in gauze. I can hear his angry voice shout into a phone telling the FBI that where Macey McHenry is located at the moment is none of their concern. But most of all, I remember how I feel asleep in his arms, hoping it was all a bad dream.

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When Abby turned she looked right at me. Then turning to Joe she exclaimed,

"Oh what the heck!" and kissed him, full on the mouth. I was in shock. I watched Joe register what was happening much slower than he usually does. Now I know before I've said I thought that I had feelings for Joe, but the way I felt watching my little sister with him most defiantly confirmed that. After the nightmare finally ended, Abby turned to me and said,

"Well, somebody had to do it," and I knew that was her weird and twisted way of telling me to get a move on, because we couldn't wait forever.

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They told me Joe was bad, but I tried my best to ignore them for as long as I could. I did everything he asked me to do, but I finally had to believe them. The evidence against him was just too strong, it would have been stupid to ignore it. He killed Matt, he played with my heart, he tried to kill Cammie, or so I thought then.

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Now I'm lying next to a broken, bandaged man who has no idea that I am here. He seems peaceful, and that is my only comfort as I lay my head on his chest trying to find nonexistent sleep. Eventually my eyes drift closed, only to relive the nightmare where I thought that the second man I had fallen in love with was dead.

When my eyes flutter open he is still lying there, not asleep, not awake. I look at his handsome face, a face that I have seen where many expressions. Now though, his face seems like it is waiting. Joe and I both are waiting for many things. We are waiting for the downfall of an association that has caused far too much pain to our loved ones. We are waiting for Cammie, and Zach, to step up and look this life in the eye and to take it on together. But most of all, right now, we are waiting for each other. So I will be here beside this hospital bed for as long as it takes for this man to heal, because Abby was wrong for once in her life. I would wait for Joe forever.

Alright. If you've got a comment or any advice I'd really appreciate a few reviews.

Thanks for reading, MaceyGoode000


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